Finished this last night. Not destined to be a King classic or anything, but I admired it's simplicity. It didn't really get chugging along until the last hundred pages or so and the climax wasn't earth-shattering but I enjoyed the journey.

Since this is the second book in a planned trilogy, the final scene hints at the direction that book will go and I'm guessing it will heavily feature the (spoilers?) killer from the first book.

And also some supernatural shit from the looks of it. Not sure how I feel about that, especially since it would be territory covered by King many times already and I don't recall anything like that in Mr. Mercedes.

In closing, a nice brisk read with some likable if not overly-developed characters. I can think of many worse ways to spend one's time.

i'm really looking forward to the day Stephen King returns to writing horror novels. this little segue into crime fiction hasn't been entirely successful in my opinion. the books aren't terrible, they're just not particularly good or necessary. i would say this only slightly less forgettable than Mr. Mercedes, but that's only because there's less to remember. there are too many better crime fiction writers out there, for King to waste his time on such trifles. his next book in November is a short story collection, Bazaar of Bad Dreams. that sounds more promising to me.

like any short story collection (or, increasingly these days, any King book) this is a mixed bag. there's some really good stuff here, and some really bad stuff, and a lot of in between stuff. i guess a lot of these stories have already been published elsewhere, but the only one i think i had previously read was Blockade Billy, which is one of the ones i liked. this book continues recent trends of King's work such as 1) less horror/supernatural-based in favor of attempting different genres, and 2) generally less sharp writing than his earlier, better work. i'm really a King horror fan, while i appreciate some of his forays into other genres like Shawshank and the Dark Tower series (and less so with other, like a couple recent detective novels that have already been talked about too much in here), it's the horror stuff that made me a fan and comprised my favorite work of his. sadly here, the "horror" stories in this collection, particularly the supernatural or monster-based ones, are some of the weakest. they feel a bit half-assed, like King is going through the motions, giving people what he thinks they want, but his heart is really in the other, non-horror material. some of that is bad too, but it has more energy.

it's hard to review a book like this overall, so i'll just give some quickie reviews of the stories themselves:

1) Mile 81 - typical King monster horror with more of his trademark bad kid dialogue. not a good start.2) Premium Harmony - King's first stab at "serious" writing. pointless.3) Batman and Robin Have an Altercation - i liked it4) The Dune - good story, good suspense, good buildup, predictable ending5) Bad Little Kid - despite the title, this one actually DOESN'T have much bad little kid dialogue.6) A Death - pretty good dark western7) The Bone Church - a poem(!); King has intros to each story and for this one he talks a bit about why he doesn't publish much poetry. after reading this one, i don't blame him8) Morality - this one's pretty good, feels like a shorter version of something that would have fit nicely in Full Dark No Stars9) Afterlife - terrible. it's like a bad comical version of the entire DT series ("Ka is a wheel") wrapped up in one lame story, even down to the Horn of Eld (in thematic terms, the Horn of Eld doesn't actually show up). probably the worst piece of the collection.10) Ur - this story simultaneously contains some of the best and worst of King-isms in a single story. it starts off bad... i mean REALLY bad. apparently King was commissioned to write this story in the early days of Kindle and had to include the Kindle as a central plot point (though he claims he initially turned the deal down, because he's an ARTIST with INTEGRITY yadda-yadda-yadda). and the first several pages of this story really feel like a giant Kindle ad. you know how King loves to name-drop his technology (tech-drop?) and this story gave him the perfect excuse and he makes the most of it. though i guess by the end of the story, you could kind of argue this is an ANTI-Kindle ad (and from other King books as well as other stories in here, King seems to be much more of an Apple guy). the middle section gets really good, and then the end brings in some full-on King mythology from some famous series of books he's written, which makes good fan service but kind of serves to defuse the tension of the ending a bit. i can imagine a much darker direction this story could have gone in. still a good story overall once you get past the shameless Kindle shilling in the introductory pages. kinda like 11/22/63 meets the Dark something-or-other.11) Herman Wouk Is Still Alive - another King stab at "serious" writing that doesn't really work for me12) Under the Weather - OK but nothing special. it feels like there's a twist coming, but it never does. 13) Blockade Billy - the one story i had previously read. liked it then, still like it now14) Mister Yummy - meh15) Tommy - poem #2. worse than the first. maybe if i was around in the 60s like King, it would have some impact.16) Little Green God of Agony - monster story #2. going through the motions.17) That Bus Is Another World - interesting vignette, maybe one of the more "serious" (sorry, i always have to put "serious" in quotations when discussing King) stories that works the best18) Obits - this one had so much potential. it's got a bit of King's tech-fetish, but not to the point of annoyance. in the intro, King talks about how he was inspired by some movie he saw on TV that was really scary for the first 60 minutes but then pussied out at the end. ironically, King does the exact same thing with this story. the end is so underwhelming, it reminded me quite a bit of the series finale of Dexter19) Drunken FIreworks - King does comedy. he's the King of Comedy! it's not bad.20) Summer Thunder - saving the best for last. one of the best stories in the book.

against my better judgment, i am starting King's new book End of Watch.the first book in this trilogy, Mr Mercedes, was ok.the second book, FInders Keepers, was terrible.this book supposedly has a supernatural component, and i always prefer King's less reality-based stories, so i'm hoping it will be an improvement over the previous two entries. probably wishful thinking, but so be it.

on another note, i tried to start Joe Hill's the Fireman, but i just wasn't in the mood. he's taking after his dad, writing a post-apocalyptic 700+ page novel (will there be an 1100+ page "uncut" version in the future?). i thought Horns was great, but his last book did nothing for me and this one just didn't grab me. maybe i'll try again over the winter when i've got more time for reading.

TheBaxter wrote:on another note, i tried to start Joe Hill's the Fireman, but i just wasn't in the mood. he's taking after his dad, writing a post-apocalyptic 700+ page novel (will there be an 1100+ page "uncut" version in the future?). i thought Horns was great, but his last book did nothing for me and this one just didn't grab me. maybe i'll try again over the winter when i've got more time for reading.

caruso_stalker217 wrote:Just started END OF WATCH, so we'll see how that goes. I'm not crazy about this series, so this is more the Stephen King completist side of me.

i just finished END OF WATCH, or as i prefer to think of it, END OF CRAPPY STEPHEN KING DETECTIVE SERIES. mr. mercedes was ok. the 2nd book sucked hard and i can't even remember it's name and i don't want to. this 3rd book is somewhere between the two. probably closer to mr. mercedes than crappy 2nd book, so that's encouraging. plenty of King technobabble referring to repeaters and DoS attacks and various other computer shit as he continues to try to convince people he's not an old geezer (and continues to fail). but the tech stuff is laid on so heavy, that it almost becomes like a star trek episode where you just stop caring whether it makes any sense or not. i guess the best thing i can say about this book is that it's an easy and relatively quick read. it's not particularly good but it's at least not boring. oh wait, that's the 2nd best thing i can say about this book. the actual best thing i can say about this book is that this series is now OVER. hopefully now King will return to writing stuff that's more in his wheelhouse.

To give credit where credit is due, Flanagan did succeed in adapting one of King's least adaptable (and least liked) novels into a pretty solid film. I think he's biting off far more than he can chew here though.

i had to go back and read my 'review' of this book (and the subsequent film adaptation discussion) to remember how i felt about it. apparently i enjoyed it more than i remembered, and felt like it could make a good film as long as it didn't end up in the hands of mick garris. mike flanagan is not mick garris, so i guess i should be happy about this.

rereading this little bit amused me though:

TheBaxter wrote:

caruso_stalker217 wrote:But, yeah, no way this thing gets adapted as a feature film. First off, no one wants to follow Kubrick's film.

that's probably the biggest reason. that, and also, how long has it been since there's been a successful feature film adaptation of a King book? 1408? The Mist? and those weren't exactly blockbusters.

funny how one little massive hit at the box office can change things, huh?

and if they can get that jack nicholson cameo that alone would make the film worth it.

As mediocre as the book was, I think it could work well as a limited series as long as skilled writers adapt it. If they make Terry's innocence ambiguous to the viewer until the end, I think it could work.

And unlike Under the Dome, adapt the damn book and end it in one season!!

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As mediocre as the book was, I think it could work well as a limited series as long as skilled writers adapt it. If they make Terry's innocence ambiguous to the viewer until the end, I think it could work.

And unlike Under the Dome, adapt the damn book and end it in one season!!

of course it is.

Price wrote The Night Of for HBO, which was really good, and kind of had a similar type of story, where you're not really sure of the main character's guilt or innocence. hopefully they can build off the premise, which was the best part of the book, and take it in a more interesting direction... not necessariy discarding the supernatural aspects but delaying them and playing more with the did-he-or-didn't-he question.

haven't watched the Mr. Mercedes show, which is on some weird network i don't get. sounds like the same team involved on this one. anyone know if it was any good?

Pet Sematary is one of my favorite King books, and while i enjoyed the original film, it was kind of awful in some ways too (like the acting, especially the super-annoying daughter) and there's definitely room for improvement. as long as they DON'T. FUCK. WITH. THE. ENDING. this is one of King's darkest novels, and it has to end the way it ends or it means nothing.looks like Lithgow will be taking over the role of Judd... Herman Munster was pretty amazing in that role, that's a tough act to follow, but Lithgow is solid. none of the other actors' work will be hard to improve on, except maybe Church.